Category Archives: Transportation

Google DeepMind: “Navigating through unstructured environments is a basic capability of intelligent creatures, and thus is of fundamental interest in the study and development of artificial intelligence. Long-range navigation is a complex cognitive task that relies on developing an internal representation of space, grounded by recognisable landmarks and robust visual processing, that can simultaneously support continuous self-localisation (“I am here”) and a representation of the goal (“I am going there”). Building upon recent research that applies deep reinforcement learning to maze navigation problems, we present an end-to-end deep reinforcement learning approach that can be applied on a city scale. Recognising that successful navigation relies on integration of general policies with locale-specific knowledge, we propose a dual pathway architecture that allows locale-specific features to be encapsulated, while still enabling transfer to multiple cities.

In addition to our NeurIPS 2018 paper and supplemental material, you can download the 644 lat/long locations of the landmarks used for goal representation, manually picked across London, New York City and Paris and stored as a tab-separated file…”

[Dow Jones/WSJ paywall] via Morningstar: “Federal prosecutors and Department of Transportation officials are scrutinizing the development of Boeing Co.’s 737 MAX jetliners, according to people familiar with the matter, unusual inquiries that come amid probes of regulators’ safety approvals of the new plane. A grand jury in Washington, D.C., issued a broad subpoena dated March… Continue Reading

The Dutch Reach project is a method used to teach drivers how to safely exit their vehicles and prevent potential cyclist injury from “dooring” – opening a car door into the path of an oncoming bicycle. There is also a YouTube video demonstrating the simple technique to increase the safety of drivers and cyclists. Continue Reading

MarineTraffic: “Monitoring vessel movements is at the core of what we do. Building on a base of data gathered from our network of coastal AIS-receiving stations, supplemented by satellite receivers, we apply algorithms and integrate complementary data sources to provide the shipping, trade and logistics industries with actionable insights into shipping activity. With our main… Continue Reading

“EPIC’s FOIA litigation over the past year has resulted in disclosure of critical information about the activities of the government. EPIC’s litigation has also generated case law that benefits the FOIA requesters and the open government community across the country.” [h/t Pete Weiss] Introduction to the Freedom of Information Act | EPIC Obtains Communications Between… Continue Reading

BuzzFeedNews: “In March 2017, President Trump issued an executive order expediting the deployment of biometric verification of the identities of all travelers crossing US borders. That mandate stipulates facial recognition identification for “100 percent of all international passengers,” including American citizens, in the top 20 US airports by 2021. Now, the United States Department of… Continue Reading

CNBC: “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched the first-ever study of electric scooter accidents at the request of Austin Public Health and the Austin Transportation Department. “We want to identify the risk factors for those who get injured, how severe the injuries are and why they’re getting hurt,” said Jeff Taylor, manager… Continue Reading

BBC: “Researchers from the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) in Suffolk used data captured from microphones placed on the seabed to identify “hotspots”. Dr Nathan Merchant, from Cefas, said he was “concerned” about potential effects on how marine mammals “communicate”. The shipping industry said it took its responsibilities to nature “seriously”. Over… Continue Reading

Bloomberg BusinessWeek – This is what peak car looks like [see also the movement called peak oil]: “The automobile — once both a badge of success and the most convenient conveyance between points A and B — is falling out of favor in cities around the world as ride-hailing and other new transportation options proliferate… Continue Reading

Governor’s Highway Safety Administration – “GHSA’s projection represents a four percent increase in the number of pedestrian fatalities during 2018 – 6,227 pedestrians died last year [the highest number of fatalities since 1990]. The report examines a number of factors that may be influencing the rise in pedestrian deaths, including increased exposure; unfriendly infrastructure; unsafe driving behaviors;… Continue Reading

Outside: “According to a report from the League of American Bicyclists released last month, 2016 went down in the record books as the deadliest year for U.S. cyclists since 1991. The report cites data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which recorded 840 cycling fatalities in 2016—the first time the annual death toll has crept… Continue Reading

“Flightradar24 is a global flight tracking service that provides you with real-time information about thousands of aircraft around the world. Flightradar24 tracks 180,000+ flights, from 1,200+ airlines, flying to or from 4,000+ airports around the world in real time.” Continue Reading

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